Electric, pop-up toasters have been commonly employed for numerous years and were originally designed to toast sliced bread. The bread product was generally of a uniform thickness and prior toasters included a housing which defined one or more slots appropriately sized with a Width of approximately 3/4" (20 mm.) to receive the bread slices. Such appliances functioned acceptably to produce toast which was even and uniform in appearance.
In such prior toasters, within the bread receiving slot is located a support shelf on which the lower edge of the bread slice rests, and a plurality of electrical heating elements which cause the toasting of the bread. The product support shelf is connected to a vertically moveable carriage within the toaster housing. In use, the carriage is moved downward to position the bread slice between the spaced apart heating elements. Although the carriage is spring biased upwardly, when fully depressed to the down position, the carriage is releasably locked and the heating elements are electrically energized through a switch. After a predetermined time and/or temperature is reached, the carriage is automatically released from its lowest, down position, with the spring bias causing the carriage to "pop" upwardly. Such movement opens the switch to de-energize the heating elements and positions the bread slice partially out of the slot where it may be manually retrieved by the user.
As previously mentioned, when bread slices were generally uniform in thickness, these earlier toasters could be appropriately sized to produce uniform, evenly toasted bread. In other words, the spacial relationship between the bread slice and the heating elements could be controlled to produce uniformity.
Through the years, consumer preferences for toasted comestibles have changed and the baking industry has responded with a wide variety of goods such as muffins, bagels, waffles, french toast, and the like. The size and thickness of these bakery goods vary considerably from the traditional notion of a more or less uniform bread slice. Accordingly, in order to accommodate a wider variety of bakery products, appliance manufacturers gradually increased the size of toaster slots from 3/4" (m) to 1" (m), then to 1.2" (m), and finally to 1.4" (m).
Such changes to permit the toasting of thicker baked goods, however, were not without problems. The wider slot openings also changed the air circulation characteristics around the bakery product during the toasting process. One side effect, many felt, was a dryer product which was less flavorous. Inconsistency and unevenness in toasting also seemed to be undesirable results from the increased widths of toaster slots.
Attempting to address the problem of dryness, one appliance manufacturer produced a toaster having a movable slot cover. In the commercial embodiment, the toaster had two parallel bread slots. A carrier was mounted internally of the housing on horizontal slide rods at one end of the toaster for reciprocal horizontal movement thereon. The slot cover was connected to the slidable carrier through an opening in the upper surface of the housing which extended parallel to the end wall of the toaster. Thus, the slot cover, consisting of two spaced apart, parallel strips of metal, was connected in cantilever fashion to the slidable carrier to overlie the top exterior surface of the toaster housing. When the toaster was loaded and depressed to the down position, the slot cover slid over the slot openings to cover them during the toasting process. According to the manufacturer's theory, covering the slot openings retained any moisture present in the bread slices within the confines of the toaster housing and helped prevent the toast from drying out. Such solution, however, did not address the problems of inconsistent and nonuniformity of toasting bakery goods having a thickness less than the full thickness of the toaster slots.
In spite of whatever beneficial effect on dryness was achieved by the prior art toaster having a slidable slot cover, a more serious problem accompanied such solution. When the toaster was depressed to the down position, the heating elements were energized. The heat tended to rise to escape through the openings normally presented by the toaster slots themselves. Since these openings were essentially closed by the slot cover, the heat generated by the elements within the toaster caused the slot cover itself to become quite hot. Accordingly, the user was confronted with a safety hazard of a hot slot cover when retrieving toast or when moving the toaster before the slot cover had sufficient time to return to ambient conditions.
The need remains for a safe, economical and efficient toaster appliance capable of producing toasted comestibles of uniform and consistent quality. The primary goal of this invention is to meet these needs, and to overcome the drawbacks previously experienced.